Brett Morgen’s kaleidoscopic ode to David Bowie landed at no 10 in North America this weekend, singing up 1.225 million on 170 screens – exclusively Imax.
The 7,207 PSA for the Neon distributed Moonage Daydream – expanding to about 600 screens next week — was the best of the ten, which all debuted on north of 2,000 screens.
Directed, written and produced by Morgen, Moonage is the number one music doc opening post pandemic, and the best opening for a post-Covid documentary on less than 200 screens, second only to Roadrunner (Focus Features), which went out on 900+ screens its opening weekend in April of 2021. Over the last 52 weeks, Searchlight Pictures’ The French Dispatch was the only film released on fewer than 200 screens to surpass a 1.2M gross, Neon noted. Morgen hosted nearly sold out Q&a’s opening weekend at the Tcl Chinese Theater in LA.
The doc took in 592k Fri./373k Sat.
The 7,207 PSA for the Neon distributed Moonage Daydream – expanding to about 600 screens next week — was the best of the ten, which all debuted on north of 2,000 screens.
Directed, written and produced by Morgen, Moonage is the number one music doc opening post pandemic, and the best opening for a post-Covid documentary on less than 200 screens, second only to Roadrunner (Focus Features), which went out on 900+ screens its opening weekend in April of 2021. Over the last 52 weeks, Searchlight Pictures’ The French Dispatch was the only film released on fewer than 200 screens to surpass a 1.2M gross, Neon noted. Morgen hosted nearly sold out Q&a’s opening weekend at the Tcl Chinese Theater in LA.
The doc took in 592k Fri./373k Sat.
- 9/18/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Paul Weitz’s “Moving On” boasts a legendary ensemble that includes Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Malcolm McDowell and Richard Roundtree. It’s always possible for such an illustrious cast to simultaneously elicit excitement and dread, though. Just ask anyone who has endured “Queen Bees,” “Poms,” “Book Club,” “Last Vegas” or “Space Cowboys.”
Good news: “Moving On” doesn’t just aim for warm and pleasant. The film is wickedly droll and shockingly riveting – the operative word being “shockingly.” The element of surprise abounds and is more integral to the plot here than in, say, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” The less you know, the better because the film defies expectations in the best way possible. With that said, and somewhat heedless of our own advice, this review regrettably must proceed to tell you more. But we won’t spoil anything beyond what’s in the programming notes of the Toronto International Film Festival,...
Good news: “Moving On” doesn’t just aim for warm and pleasant. The film is wickedly droll and shockingly riveting – the operative word being “shockingly.” The element of surprise abounds and is more integral to the plot here than in, say, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” The less you know, the better because the film defies expectations in the best way possible. With that said, and somewhat heedless of our own advice, this review regrettably must proceed to tell you more. But we won’t spoil anything beyond what’s in the programming notes of the Toronto International Film Festival,...
- 9/17/2022
- by Martin Tsai
- The Wrap
Click here to read the full article.
At first, director Alex Gibney wholeheartedly embraced the influx of energy — and money — the streamers have increasingly pumped into the documentary space over the past decade. Selling to the growing platforms eager to bulk up their content libraries struck the Oscar-winning director of Taxi to the Dark Side and Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief as a creative windfall — a larger market for the kind of filmmaker-driven films that had previously found some success at the box office and HBO. His company, Jigsaw, could produce unique, entertaining titles in a traditionally underfunded field, told in stylistically distinct ways, and receive “greater monetary reward” to boot.
But then, a red flag: Gibney started to get notes from the streamers “that tried to scientifically rationalize the process,” he says: “‘Our algorithm states that by minute 10 you should do X, Y or Z.'” In the meantime,...
At first, director Alex Gibney wholeheartedly embraced the influx of energy — and money — the streamers have increasingly pumped into the documentary space over the past decade. Selling to the growing platforms eager to bulk up their content libraries struck the Oscar-winning director of Taxi to the Dark Side and Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief as a creative windfall — a larger market for the kind of filmmaker-driven films that had previously found some success at the box office and HBO. His company, Jigsaw, could produce unique, entertaining titles in a traditionally underfunded field, told in stylistically distinct ways, and receive “greater monetary reward” to boot.
But then, a red flag: Gibney started to get notes from the streamers “that tried to scientifically rationalize the process,” he says: “‘Our algorithm states that by minute 10 you should do X, Y or Z.'” In the meantime,...
- 9/16/2022
- by Mia Galuppo and Katie Kilkenny
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Frederick Wiseman, a voracious reader, doesn’t watch television. In fact, he’d never really gotten through a whole series until recently, when he watched HBO’s “The Wire.”
“I don’t know why, but it was interesting,” he tells Variety drily.
Every couple of years, the 92-year-old master documentarian behind such seminal films as “Titicut Follies” and “Juvenile Court” has churned out a sprawling documentary fixated on a microcosm of society or some sort of social issue, but when the pandemic paused those efforts for two and a half years, it’s Wiseman’s literary proclivities that drew him to Sofia Tolstoy’s writing for his new fiction film “Un Couple,” which premiered Friday in Venice’s Competition section.
Wiseman and sometimes collaborator, the French actor and writer Nathalie Boutefeu, were brainstorming small-scale projects that could be made in pandemic-proof conditions, when they landed on the diaries of Leo Tolstoy...
“I don’t know why, but it was interesting,” he tells Variety drily.
Every couple of years, the 92-year-old master documentarian behind such seminal films as “Titicut Follies” and “Juvenile Court” has churned out a sprawling documentary fixated on a microcosm of society or some sort of social issue, but when the pandemic paused those efforts for two and a half years, it’s Wiseman’s literary proclivities that drew him to Sofia Tolstoy’s writing for his new fiction film “Un Couple,” which premiered Friday in Venice’s Competition section.
Wiseman and sometimes collaborator, the French actor and writer Nathalie Boutefeu, were brainstorming small-scale projects that could be made in pandemic-proof conditions, when they landed on the diaries of Leo Tolstoy...
- 9/3/2022
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
John-Paul Williams is a bad, bad husband. He’s belittling, controlling, physically imposing. He exclusively calls his wife “mammy”, even in front of company. In other words, he has to go. Mercifully, when we first meet him in the new Dublin whodunnit Bad Sisters, he’s already dead – a fact that doesn’t keep John-Paul, played with cultivated smugness by Danish actor Claes Bang, from posthumously threatening to tear his family apart.
The Apple TV+ miniseries from Catastrophe co-creator Sharon Horgan occurs across 10 enthusiastic episodes and two hilariously interwoven timelines – one that precedes Jp’s untimely demise and a second that follows from it. In the earlier timeline, Jp’s four sisters-in-law plot how to extract their diminished fifth sister Grace, an aching Anne-Marie Duff, from her gaslighting husband. In the second timeline, they scrabble to hide their misdeeds from a couple of pesky suits looking for any excuse not...
The Apple TV+ miniseries from Catastrophe co-creator Sharon Horgan occurs across 10 enthusiastic episodes and two hilariously interwoven timelines – one that precedes Jp’s untimely demise and a second that follows from it. In the earlier timeline, Jp’s four sisters-in-law plot how to extract their diminished fifth sister Grace, an aching Anne-Marie Duff, from her gaslighting husband. In the second timeline, they scrabble to hide their misdeeds from a couple of pesky suits looking for any excuse not...
- 8/19/2022
- by Amanda Whiting
- The Independent - TV
"Samurai Jack" gave me something I didn't know I wanted as a kid, which was violence. At the climax of the show's "Premiere Movie," Jack defends a pack of hapless dogs from an army of mechanical beetles commanded by the demon Aku. The beetles are impaled, decapitated, blasted by rocket fire. As Jack slices them in half, oil spurts from their severed pipes. Jack is bathed in this black filth. As a child I could not process what I was seeing. The sea of beetles swallowing the red hills, the repeated swing of Jack's sword, and the rictus of his face was like a nightmare. But that is why "Samurai Jack" succeeds, beyond its remarkable style. It delivers everything a kid could want — samurai, monsters, robots — at a level of intensity just outside of their comfort zone.
Jack's story was no nightmare for Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of "Samurai Jack.
Jack's story was no nightmare for Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of "Samurai Jack.
- 8/13/2022
- by Adam Wescott
- Slash Film
Lainey Wilson Writes Her Version of ‘Strawberry Wine’ With Nostalgic New Song ‘Watermelon Moonshine’
Lainey Wilson looks back on a young and reckless love in the new song “Watermelon Moonshine,” her latest release from her upcoming second album. Bell Bottom Country, the follow-up to the “Things a Man Oughta Know” singer’s 2021 breakout Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’, will be released Oct. 28 via Bbr Music Group/Broken Bow Records.
There’s some thematic similarity between “Watermelon Moonshine” and Deana Carter’s classic “Strawberry Wine”: Wilson describes a memory of being 18 and in love, having tastes of homemade booze, and then giving in to pleasure.
There’s some thematic similarity between “Watermelon Moonshine” and Deana Carter’s classic “Strawberry Wine”: Wilson describes a memory of being 18 and in love, having tastes of homemade booze, and then giving in to pleasure.
- 8/12/2022
- by Jon Freeman
- Rollingstone.com
Even as he flirts with retirement, Steve Martin finds himself in a late-career renaissance thanks to the Hulu comedy “Only Murders In The Building.” The show notched Martin three Emmy nominations this year, and as of last month, there’s a third season on the way. But there’s another upcoming project about Martin on the way, too, from documentary extraordinaire Morgan Neville.
Read More: ‘Only Murders In The Building’: John Hoffman On Their Emmy Nod Haul, Pitching Season 3 & Steven Spielberg’s Superfandom
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Neville and A24 are hard at work on a two-part feature film on Martin’s life and career.
Continue reading Two-Part Steve Martin Documentary In The Works From A24 & ‘Roadrunner’ Director Morgan Neville at The Playlist.
Read More: ‘Only Murders In The Building’: John Hoffman On Their Emmy Nod Haul, Pitching Season 3 & Steven Spielberg’s Superfandom
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Neville and A24 are hard at work on a two-part feature film on Martin’s life and career.
Continue reading Two-Part Steve Martin Documentary In The Works From A24 & ‘Roadrunner’ Director Morgan Neville at The Playlist.
- 8/10/2022
- by Ned Booth
- The Playlist
The very first creature we ever see in a movie by Blue Sky Studios is Scrat the Squirrel, as he tries to obtain (and keep) a single acorn to last the entire winter. That was 20 years ago, in the opening of "Ice Age," and ever since then, the poor squirrel/rat hybrid has been through literal hell and back.
But all things must come to an end. Like Coyote catching the Road Runner, or Sylvester eating Tweety, Scrat finally got his due, and the animation gods granted him his wish of eating the acorn in one of the most bittersweet animated shorts...
The post Ice Age Character Scrat Finally Gets His Acorn as Blue Sky Studios Says Goodbye appeared first on /Film.
But all things must come to an end. Like Coyote catching the Road Runner, or Sylvester eating Tweety, Scrat finally got his due, and the animation gods granted him his wish of eating the acorn in one of the most bittersweet animated shorts...
The post Ice Age Character Scrat Finally Gets His Acorn as Blue Sky Studios Says Goodbye appeared first on /Film.
- 4/14/2022
- by Rafael Motamayor
- Slash Film
Somewhere along the line, Ryan Reynolds became the most playful actor we have. That might sound like faint praise; some would call him silly or lightweight or even, in his aggro irreverance, a touch smarmy. But genuine fast-break insolence is a quality that’s missing from the lumbering cheek of most of our paint-by-numbers blockbusters. He’s got a Nervous Nellie side that humanizes him, especially when it takes the form of a nerd’s verbal machine-gun fire. In his way, he’s a new screen type: the brainy goof in a pinup’s body.
Last summer, in the diabolically clever video-game head trip “Free Guy,” Reynolds finally got to be in a movie where the jittery digital-age fantasy elements skittered by every bit as quickly as his rapid-patter mind. The film was as jammed with media as Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” but more relaxed about its own insanity,...
Last summer, in the diabolically clever video-game head trip “Free Guy,” Reynolds finally got to be in a movie where the jittery digital-age fantasy elements skittered by every bit as quickly as his rapid-patter mind. The film was as jammed with media as Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” but more relaxed about its own insanity,...
- 3/10/2022
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Before Netflix launched a gaming platform, they experimented with interactive specials such as “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” and “The Boss Baby: Get That Baby!” But its new interactive gaming special, “Cat Burglar,” offers a new wrinkle: a nostalgic Tex Avery–inspired cartoon complete with a full orchestra, which plays like an extended Looney Tunes short.
“It’s about an hour and a half, which we treated as basically a feature-length Tex Avery cartoon,” said director and co-creator Mike Hollingsworth, a producer on “BoJack Horseman.” The result is just like what you’d find in a “Tom and Jerry” or a Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoon. It follows a cat named Rowdy (James Adomian), who tries to steal a priceless piece of art from a museum while attempting to evade a security guard dog named Peanut (Alan Lee).
Each playthrough is the length of a classic theatrical cartoon short,...
“It’s about an hour and a half, which we treated as basically a feature-length Tex Avery cartoon,” said director and co-creator Mike Hollingsworth, a producer on “BoJack Horseman.” The result is just like what you’d find in a “Tom and Jerry” or a Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoon. It follows a cat named Rowdy (James Adomian), who tries to steal a priceless piece of art from a museum while attempting to evade a security guard dog named Peanut (Alan Lee).
Each playthrough is the length of a classic theatrical cartoon short,...
- 2/25/2022
- by Rafael Motamayor
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Oscar-winning filmmaker Adam McKay has evolved from his broad comedy origins on Saturday Night Live and films like Step Brothers, Talladega Nights and Anchorman to more socially relevant films like The Big Short and Vice. He has fused both of these elements into Don’t Look Up, a Netflix movie that features some of the biggest stars in the movie business constellation, from Leonardo DiCaprio to Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Mark Rylance, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry and more. The film will be an unusual awards-season entry, its closest comp being spirited satires like Dr. Strangelove and Network. Don’t Look Up is more broad comedy than those, exploring the current polarization and apathy toward issues like climate change and Covid vaccines, fueled by a threat with even more urgency: What if a giant comet was on a collision course toward earth and, in the struggle between polarized politics,...
- 11/16/2021
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
"Looney Tunes Cartoons", a reboot in the style of Warners classic 1940's cartoon shorts, is directed by David Gemmill, Ryan Kramer, Kenny Pittenger and Pete Browngardt, based on characters from "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies", streaming Season Three November 25, 2021 on HBO Max:
The style of the series is reminiscent of classic Looney Tunes cartoon shorts directed by Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng and Robert McKimson.
The series brings together 'Bugs Bunny', 'Daffy Duck', 'Tweety', 'Sylvester', 'Porky Pig', 'The Gremlin', 'Elmer Fudd', 'The Gashouse Gorillas', 'Yosemite Sam', 'Granny', 'Beaky Buzzard', 'Mama Buzzard', 'Road Runner', 'Wile E. Coyote', 'Cecil Turtle', 'Sam Sheepdog', 'Ralph Wolf', 'Cicero Pig', 'Taz'...
...'Gossamer', 'Dr. Frankenbeans', 'Petunia Pig', the 'French Horse', 'Rocky', 'Mugsy', the 'Irish Policeman', the 'Russian Dog', the 'Rich Lady', 'Foghorn Leghorn', 'Barnyard Dawg', 'The Weasel', 'Hector the Bulldog', 'Marvin the Martian', the 'Dead End Kid',...
The style of the series is reminiscent of classic Looney Tunes cartoon shorts directed by Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng and Robert McKimson.
The series brings together 'Bugs Bunny', 'Daffy Duck', 'Tweety', 'Sylvester', 'Porky Pig', 'The Gremlin', 'Elmer Fudd', 'The Gashouse Gorillas', 'Yosemite Sam', 'Granny', 'Beaky Buzzard', 'Mama Buzzard', 'Road Runner', 'Wile E. Coyote', 'Cecil Turtle', 'Sam Sheepdog', 'Ralph Wolf', 'Cicero Pig', 'Taz'...
...'Gossamer', 'Dr. Frankenbeans', 'Petunia Pig', the 'French Horse', 'Rocky', 'Mugsy', the 'Irish Policeman', the 'Russian Dog', the 'Rich Lady', 'Foghorn Leghorn', 'Barnyard Dawg', 'The Weasel', 'Hector the Bulldog', 'Marvin the Martian', the 'Dead End Kid',...
- 11/12/2021
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter moves from Venice into 579 theaters this weekend — the first in a welcome stream of specialty films from the Lido, Telluride and Toronto that could, perhaps maybe, buck up the struggling arthouse market this fall. The film is 90% certified fresh and hails from Focus Features, which presented one of the rare specialty hits of recent months, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain.
That film came out in mid-July before the Delta Variant reached full sweep. It was released on nearly double the number of screens.
The Card Counter stars Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish and Tye Sheridan. William Tell (Isaac) a military interrogator haunted by his past just wants to play cards. But his spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he’s approached by Cirk (Sheridan), a vulnerable, angry young man seeking help to get revenge on a military colonel (Willem Dafoe). Tell...
That film came out in mid-July before the Delta Variant reached full sweep. It was released on nearly double the number of screens.
The Card Counter stars Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish and Tye Sheridan. William Tell (Isaac) a military interrogator haunted by his past just wants to play cards. But his spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he’s approached by Cirk (Sheridan), a vulnerable, angry young man seeking help to get revenge on a military colonel (Willem Dafoe). Tell...
- 9/10/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
WarnerMedia Kids & Family has announced Acme Night, a block of programming that parents and kids can watch together each Sunday. It begins with Shazam on September 19 on Cartoon Network. Subsequent Sundays at 6 p.m. Et/Pt the network will air a succession of family friendly blockbusters, including Man of Steel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sherlock Gnomes, Scoob! and Detective Pikachu.
“In the world of Acme anything, and I do mean anything, is possible,” said Tom Ascheim, President of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics in a statement. “We know families want to spend time together, so we’ve created a destination for multigenerational stories that pull families together through the power of imagination.”
Other Acme Night programming will include a previously-announced Harry Potter Wizarding World competition event series, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and others.
An in-the-works slate of original features from Warner Bros. Animation...
“In the world of Acme anything, and I do mean anything, is possible,” said Tom Ascheim, President of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics in a statement. “We know families want to spend time together, so we’ve created a destination for multigenerational stories that pull families together through the power of imagination.”
Other Acme Night programming will include a previously-announced Harry Potter Wizarding World competition event series, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and others.
An in-the-works slate of original features from Warner Bros. Animation...
- 9/1/2021
- by Tom Tapp
- Deadline Film + TV
Don Jurwich, a longtime writer-director-producer at Hanna-Barbera and Marvel Productions, died July 13 of natural causes. He was 87.
Starting his career in animation as a layout and background artist, Jurwich worked his way up in storyboarding, eventually becoming a producer and director.
While working at Hanna-Barbera, Jurwich produced and directed “Scooby Doo,” “The Superfriends,” “Captain Caveman, “Richie Rich,” “Fonz and the Happy Days Gang,” along with one hour prime-time special, “Scooby Goes Hollywood.”
At Marvel, Jurwich directed “Spiderman and His Amazing Friends.” He also produced 85 half-hour episodes of “G.I. Joe,” along with the miniseries “G.I. Joe: The Movie,” which was later released as a feature film.
Over the course of his 40-year career, Jurwich contributed to animated series including “Road Runner,” “The Pink Panther,” “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” “The Flintstones,” “George The Jungle,” “Yogi Bear,” “Tom & Jerry” — along with their mini-me successor, the “Tom & Jerry Kids Show.” Jurwich also...
Starting his career in animation as a layout and background artist, Jurwich worked his way up in storyboarding, eventually becoming a producer and director.
While working at Hanna-Barbera, Jurwich produced and directed “Scooby Doo,” “The Superfriends,” “Captain Caveman, “Richie Rich,” “Fonz and the Happy Days Gang,” along with one hour prime-time special, “Scooby Goes Hollywood.”
At Marvel, Jurwich directed “Spiderman and His Amazing Friends.” He also produced 85 half-hour episodes of “G.I. Joe,” along with the miniseries “G.I. Joe: The Movie,” which was later released as a feature film.
Over the course of his 40-year career, Jurwich contributed to animated series including “Road Runner,” “The Pink Panther,” “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” “The Flintstones,” “George The Jungle,” “Yogi Bear,” “Tom & Jerry” — along with their mini-me successor, the “Tom & Jerry Kids Show.” Jurwich also...
- 8/5/2021
- by Jennifer Yuma
- Variety Film + TV
Arthouse bounced higher this weekend as Morgan Neville’s Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain hit $1.9 million — the strongest specialty opening this year and the best yet for Neville His documentary is No. 8 at the U.S. box office.
Pig starring Nicolas Cage hit No. 10. Both films had under 1,000 runs and excellent per theater averages.
Road Runner from Focus Features played at 927 locations for a $2,050 per screen average and estimated cume through Sunday that makes it the top opening specialty film — narrative or documentary — and top opening doc of the year.
Pig from Neon was on 552 screens for an estimated three-day cume of $945,000 and average per theater take of $1,712. “Pig had a nice weekend. It’s a great result and we couldn’t be happier,” Neon said. The well reviewed debut feature from director Michael Sarnoski stars Cage as a former...
Pig starring Nicolas Cage hit No. 10. Both films had under 1,000 runs and excellent per theater averages.
Road Runner from Focus Features played at 927 locations for a $2,050 per screen average and estimated cume through Sunday that makes it the top opening specialty film — narrative or documentary — and top opening doc of the year.
Pig from Neon was on 552 screens for an estimated three-day cume of $945,000 and average per theater take of $1,712. “Pig had a nice weekend. It’s a great result and we couldn’t be happier,” Neon said. The well reviewed debut feature from director Michael Sarnoski stars Cage as a former...
- 7/18/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Vincent Neil Emerson was watching Edward Norton portray both a rhapsodizing stoner and his straitlaced brother in 2009’s Leaves of Grass when the actor began singing a Townes Van Zandt song onscreen. Emerson, a native of East Texas, hadn’t yet discovered the tragic songwriter at the time and he dutifully studied the film’s closing credits to see who was responsible for writing “Rex’s Blues.”
“I found the name Townes Van Zandt, went to YouTube and just typed it in, and the first video was of him playing ‘Waiting Around to Die,...
“I found the name Townes Van Zandt, went to YouTube and just typed it in, and the first video was of him playing ‘Waiting Around to Die,...
- 7/15/2021
- by Joseph Hudak
- Rollingstone.com
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